fbpx
ADVERTISE
pick up locations
donate

Jewish Journal

Connect. Inform. Inspire.

Category

June 6, 2002

Waking Up to the Right

Gary Rosenblatt June 6, 2002

Be honest: ever wake up in a cold sweat these days after dreaming that Al Gore and Joe Lieberman had indeed been elected, after all? Ever look around, while driving to or from work, to see if anyone can tell you\’re listening to Rush Limbaugh on the radio — and loving what he says about Israel? Ever given any thought, however fleeting, to voting for Alan Keyes, the vigorously pro-Israel Fox TV host, next time he runs for president?

They say politics makes strange bedfellows, but the sudden discovery, and embrace (however hesitant), of outspoken conservative Republicans by lifelong liberal Democrats has been extraordinary. As Israel finds itself increasingly isolated in diplomatic and political circles around the world, we are starting to realize that not only do we supporters of the Jewish state have few friends, but that many of the ones we have are the very ones we ignored, feared and/or disliked until yesterday, it seems.

Dirty Facts

Phil Shuman June 6, 2002

The lawyers have a term for it, of course. A situation where certain facts don\’t make their client look so good, even though their client is innocent and righteous. They\’re called \”dirty facts.\” The Middle East is hardly a courtroom, yet I think the term applies. I\’m thinking of things like Israelis bulldozing homes with people inside them. Like sharp-shooting soldiers taking out old women in the street. Like denying food, water and medical care to those who are injured and dying. Get the picture?

The Class of 2002

Sharon Schatz Rosenthal June 6, 2002

With graduation just days away, The Jewish Journal caught up with several outstanding students from high schools around Los Angeles. Clearly, Judaism plays a role for this crop of young adults as they prepare to enter the next level of their academic and personal lives.

Maseng of Many Hats

Ellen Jaffe-Gill June 6, 2002

Somebody must have perfected human cloning, because no way is Danny Maseng just one person.

When the singer-songwriter-guitarist-actor-poet-dramatist-lay rabbi-teacher-visionary, who will headline the Fund for Reform Judaism\’s annual fundraiser at Temple Isaiah in Rancho Park on June 13, isn\’t performing, he may be teaching the Zohar, leading a service at his New York congregation or dashing off a new setting for a passage in Jewish liturgy.

Or he might be working institutionally on innovations in Jewish arts, Jewish worship, Jewish music or Jewish camping.

7 Days In Arts

Keren Engelberg June 6, 2002

7 days in the Arts, around Los Angeles.

Comedic Warfare

Naomi Pfefferman June 6, 2002

A funny thing happened on the way to the synagogue: A rabbi and an Egyptian American, both professional comics, teamed up to perform \”One Arab, One Jew, One Stage\” this week at Temple Beth Hillel in Valley Village and Temple Beth El in Aliso Viejo.\n\n\”It sounds like a joke, especially as violence is escalating in the Middle East\” says Bob Alper, 57, who bills himself as \”the only practicing rabbi in the country doing standup — intentionally.\” \”But the point is to diffuse the tension and to humanize our two groups.\”\n\nThe humor is nonpolitical, says Ahmed Ahmed, a 31-year-old actor who turned to standup after being typecast as cabbies and terrorists.

The Legacy of ‘Esther’s Children’

Gina Nahai June 6, 2002

In his introduction to Esther\’s Children,\” (Jewish Publication Society, $110) editor Houman Sarshar speaks of a time when, at 6 years old and about to start elementary school, he discovered his legacy as an Iranian Jew. Over breakfast in their apartment in Tehran, Houman\’s father, a top planning commissioner in the Shah\’s Iran, notices the Star of David pendant — a recent gift from a grandmother — hanging from his son\’s neck. He reaches over and slips the necklace under Houman\’s shirt.

\”If anyone in school asks about your religion,\” he instructs his son, \”lie. Tell them you\’re Muslim.\”

The Circuit

Michael Aushenker June 6, 2002

The Circuit, information on events around los angeles.\n

Love, Israeli Style

Amy Klein June 6, 2002

Have you ever been in love? Really in love, I mean, the warts-and-all kind that lasts beyond initial infatuation, the kind that lifts your heart nearly all the time, despite everything.

For me, at age 18, I think it was more like an arranged marriage than love at first sight. When I came to Israel for the first time — they shipped us straight from the plane to the Western Wall — I didn\’t feel it. I didn\’t know right away, the way people often say they do in hindsight. The country grew on me over time, but it was like an old friend I felt I had always known, even though we had never even met. It seemed that all my life I had been prepped for loving Israel: Zionist Hebrew school coupled with an American patriotic sense of duty instilled in me the sense that I was slated for a higher purpose in life — something to fight for, believe in — something I hadn\’t come across until Jerusalem.

Insider, Outsider

Marlene Adler Marks June 6, 2002

I check in periodically with David Tokofsky, who has represented the Eastside on the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) since 1995, just to find out how long it takes to stop being considered an outsider.

For a Jewish boy on the Eastside, the answer is: more than two terms. Even now, despite winning two elections, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF) has made him the target of redistricting, to insure that the next time out, someone with a Latino surname gets the job.

New Articles

More news and opinions than at a
Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.

More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.

Jewish Journal

Connect. Inform. Inspire.
© Copyright 2024 Tribe Media Corp • Powered by Lightdrop

More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.